It is a problem in cellular communication networks that the network topology is exclusively point to point in nature. This paradigm represents the historical view of cellular communications as a wireless equivalent of traditional wire-line telephone communication networks, which serve to interconnect a calling party with a called party. An additional problem in cellular communication networks is that the need to concurrently serve many voice subscribers with the limited bandwidth available in cellular communication networks has prevented the provision of wide bandwidth communication services, such as data, to these subscribers.
The third generation (3G) wireless communication systems, as specified by the ITU/IMT-2000 requirements for cellular communications, represent a step toward solving the above-noted problems. The third generation wireless communication systems support the provision of advanced packet data services. In 3G/IMT-2000 systems, dynamic Internet Protocol address assignment is required in addition to static Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment. With static IP address assignment, the wireless communique wireless subscriber device's static IP address is fixed and assigned by the home wireless network. When the wireless communique wireless subscriber device is away from its home wireless network (roaming), a special data communications link (Wireless IP tunnel) needs to be established between the visited wireless network and the home wireless network. In this case, IP packets destined to the wireless communique wireless subscriber device's IP address of the home wireless network are routed to the home wireless network according to standard IP routing. A Wireless IP tunnel is used in the home wireless network to redirect the IP packets that are destined to the wireless communique wireless subscriber device's static IP address to the visited wireless network where the roaming wireless communique wireless subscriber device is located and being served. When a wireless communique wireless subscriber device moves from one wireless network coverage area to another, Wireless IP mobility binding updates are performed between the wireless communique wireless subscriber device and its Home Agent (HA) in the home wireless network. Since both the wireless station's IP address and its Home Agent IP address are static or fixed, a shared secret between the wireless communique wireless subscriber device and the Home Agent can be preprogrammed into the wireless station and its Home Agent so that the Home Agent can authenticate Wireless IP registrations requested by the wireless communique wireless subscriber device and perform mobility binding updates in a secure manner.
However, even with advances in bandwidth utilization and the provision of packet data services, the cellular communication networks still operate on a point to point paradigm, with the networks being unable to concurrently communicate data to a plurality of subscribers, which is the fundamental concept of broadcast communications, especially in the case of a dynamically changing audience for the broadcasts.